Stratum V2

Stratum V2 is a pooled mining protocol. It replaces Stratum V1 with a design that uses bandwidth more efficiently, improves security, and gives miners more control over how blocks are built.

The main change is job negotiation. Under Stratum V1, pools chose the transaction set and miners mostly supplied hash power. Stratum V2 lets individual miners construct their own block templates. That reduces pool control and improves censorship resistance. The protocol also improves encryption, device interoperability, and communication between miners, proxies, and pools.

Why fund it?

Mining protocol upgrades take specification work, production implementations, testing tools, benchmarking, and compatibility work across real hardware and software stacks. Without funding, that work moves slowly.

OpenSats began supporting the Stratum V2 ecosystem in August 2023 with funding for a testing and benchmarking tool. Support continued with a later grant for the Stratum V2 Reference Implementation, the main open-source codebase for production adopters.

What's next?

Current work is focused on the Stratum V2 Reference Implementation, interoperability testing, and the tooling needed to make deployment safer for pools and miners. That includes better compatibility across stacks, smoother translation from legacy infrastructure, and more confidence for teams adopting the protocol in production.

If adoption continues, miners will have more say over block construction and less dependence on pool-controlled templates.